Question Everything

Do One Hundred Pushups

2012-02-27T00:11:50+00:00

I tried this program with Trav about two years ago. I went from doing a measly sum of five ‘girl’ pushups to about 70+ consecutive ‘girl’ pushups in about four weeks. Then we just abruptly stopped. Don’t ask me why.

I definitely noticed a difference in my strength, but not so much any tone changes in my arms. Or maybe I’m tone deaf—oh, I remember now: our excuse for quitting was that it was a really tiny apartment and we didn’t have room for two people to do sweaty pushups at the same time after four weeks of doing sweaty pushups in a tiny apartment. Right.

Anyway, my friend Karissa brought it up again and we’re going to commit to doing these damned exercises if it damn-well kills us. Six weeks, three times a week, and bragging rights for being able to whip out 100 pushups in a row. Time to let my competitive juices leak out of my sorry pores.

I just did my fit test today and I eked out a measly three regular pushups. I hate my almost thirty-year-old body for giving up on life. This is going to be a worthy bitch of an adversary, isn’t it.

In case you’d like to join me and scrap that saggy body you call home, hundredpushups also offers some other sexy six week fitness ‘programs’. Taking up these programs is probably a better avenue than the Lipolaser treatment Groupon was trying to sell me yesterday.

twohundredsitups

twohundredsquats

onefiftydips

Well, speak up…Are you in?

What It’s Like to Live in a Universe of Ten Dimensions

2012-02-23T19:20:00+00:00

The multiverse? Eight dimensions? TEN dimensions? I have no idea if Rob Bryanton’s logic is sound or not, but this is fucking mind bending.

Via Brain Pickings

Everything is a Remix: Pt 4

2012-02-17T23:53:39+00:00

Kirby Ferguson has released his fourth and final instalment of Everything is a Remix, and it is a damn masterpiece.

We’ve written about this series before, but if you haven’t seen it, I recommend you watch them all. It’s a wonderful series that’ll get your brain gears turning.

Kirby’s also got a Kick Starter campaign for his next project, This is Not a Conspiracy Theory, where he’s going to attempt to deconstruct the messy political situation in the US and abroad. It sounds amazing. If anyone is up to the task, it’s him.

Everything is a Remix

ReCivilization with CBC’s Don Tapscott

2012-02-17T06:24:54+00:00

Don Tapscott walks us through the death of industrialization in an excellent four part series

Here’s the first of four.

Turning The Media Inside Out

Our systems are failing: from the death of printed media, to our broken financial system, to our failing corporate model. Don discusses how people are online tools to create collaborative citizen journalism. He also talks about the invention of the internet!

Check out the rest on iTunes>Podcasts>Society & Culture>CBC>Recivilization from CBC Radio

Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle

2012-02-15T21:34:53+00:00

An amazing talk about how we interact with and develop software… then how to change the world.

Fascinating and inspiring. Stick with it until the end. It gets really good.

Via @fchimero

How To Rob A Sunglass Hut

2012-02-14T06:48:09+00:00

I don’t recommend acting on this unless you’re flirting with disaster and have a few thousand dollars you can shell out for bail. Which—don’t let me be the judge—you might.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for your systematic arrest, torture, and made-for-tv movie if you do choose to heed this post.

The entire process should take you no longer than 2:37. If it’s like a half hour, you’re not doing it right. Stick to ripping off penny candies at the 7/11. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1:

Walk into a Sunglass Hat wearing jeans that are hanging off you like the skin off a half-eaten chicken bone, and while you’re at it, make sure the skin on your face is doing the same. It’ll make you look ruggedly handsome (see corpse buried in woods) and distract people from your sneaky ploy.

Word to the wise: Make sure there are at least three other people in the shop. There’s seldom more than one person behind the till and she’ll have to keep an eye on you, the other three punks, and do sales at the same time. Impossible multitasking.

Step 2:

Scan the shelves for the most expensive sunglasses you can find. For whatever reason, Sunglass Hut doesn’t lock their lenses down, nor put magnetic chips, dye tags, RFID’s, or fresh lamb’s blood on them for that matter. So, naturally they make themselves an easy target.

Note: It would appear that Dolce and Gabana sunglasses while reeking of overinflated self-importance, happen to be of the most expensive variety. It’s like Jimmy Choo for your face. Weird!

Step 3:

If you’re Chicken-Bone Face (and you are), grab a $450.00 pair of D&G’s and talk loudly about how great they look on you. [They don’t. It’s like Willem Dafoe meets Kevin Federlein, but whatever makes you happy, you skinny prick]

Step 4:

Parade around the store in a hurry. Move your arms around a lot. Act like you really want these douchey sunglasses because they show off your tanned physique [when you haven’t seen the sun in seven years. Check the puncture marks on your neck, Chicken Bone. They aren’t fresh].

Step 5:

Quickly slip the sunglass bling onto your face whilst slipping off the pair that you stole from the Shoppers Optical last week and leave those cheapies on the counter as a decoy. Harder to track how many pairs are out that way. See? Then proceed to hand a third pair to the sales clerk—the ones “you wish to purchase.” Suckers.

Step 6:

Smell strongly of meth. No, not death. That one doesn’t score you any bonus points with the sales representative. The gasoline mint smell of meth throws people off. They’re not sure if they should put you out or unwrap you and pump their tank. Works wonders in enclosed spaces.

Step 7:

Make a grand gesture of paying with cash as you brandish your receipt-less box of high-end headphones that you also “just spent $500 on.”

Step 8:

Quickly mention that you just have to grab some cash from the cash machine to pay for them. You’ll be back in three minutes. The number three is key here, folks. The odd number shows you’ve put thought into how much time it will take you to walk to the bank machine, insert your card, punch in your ID, wait for the weird counting noise the machine makes while it debates whether or not you’re a threat to national security, and then eventually spits out ‘your’ money. Three minutes is a realistic guess. I’d venture more like eleven, but I’d still be duped by three.

Step 9:

While you comment that you’ll be back in three minutes, quickly slip another ugly pair of slightly-less expensive glasses into your chicken-bone pocket. Make sure you’re standing close enough to the till that you won’t be seen by that big old panopticon hanging from the ceiling or your ass is grass. Them cheap uglies won’t get much for street value. But damn, you have the equivalent of almost $800 of merchandise on your scrawny body. That’s something to celebrate over with a hit of meth. Oh, I forgot: you’ll have to sell those glasses for like $40 apiece to buy that meth, so don’t celebrate yet.

Final touch: as you stride towards the exit, throw your hands up in the air, look back over your shoulder and say something convincing like this while keeping your dignity intact, “my dad’s gonna kill me.” Then crack a shit-eating grin and don’t return for like a month. Nobody will ever suspect that you’re a 27 year-old drug addict living in Blood Alley. You did it, Chicken Bone! You robbed the Sunglass Hut.

Fin.

If you haven’t figured it out, Travis and I witnessed a $1000 dollar robbery on Sunday. Just one of many I’m sure that nice young man committed in order to feed his $800/day [fill in drug of choice] habit. And no, I’m not mocking people with mental health addictions. If you’ll notice, I was mostly picking on him for his Chicken-Bone pants and his shitty taste in sunglasses.

By the by, the store owner never called security, didn’t take a description of Chicken-Bone, and pressed no magic red button under the counter. She shrugged her shoulders at my perplexed expression and said, “what can you do, uh?”

What can you do…?

Project Unbreakable Trigger Warning

2012-02-14T05:28:12+00:00

This site is truly heart wrenching. Victims of sexual violence display the words that their attackers used on them during their abuse.

I was surprised and uplifted by the number of men that chose to take part of this. Sadly, this is a men’s issue just as much as it is a women’s issue.

What Hope Looks Like in NYC

2012-02-13T03:46:57+00:00

She pushes a cart full of sticky cans and bottles, hoping today she’ll have enough to feed her two kids who are only steps behind.

Entre Nos is a Spanish foreign film about Mariana, a single mother of two young kids who has to reinvent her family’s survival. Her husband walked out on her and left her in New York just two weeks after she and the kids emigrated from Columbia. She doesn’t have enough to cover rent and she doesn’t speak the language. But she’s tough, and she’s a fighter. Her story is real. Her daughter, Paola Mendoza, actually grows up to become the director of this adapted tale. She plays her own mother and I think this is where the intensity of the film burns bright.

Not only did Paola play the lead, she wrote, directed, produced and edited the film as well. It was shot in 18 days in New York City. The real Mariana and Paola’s brother were only on set for eleven of those days.

What astounds me is that this film could drag you down a staircase of sadness and bruise you at every step, but instead, as the real Mariana chose to do, it keeps smiling and draws you in a bit closer till you feel somehow connected to its resiliency.

After you watch the trailer, I’d recommend checking out the rest of this Fiction Field II article, including the Vimeo interview with Paola and her mother and brother to get a feel for how the family not only managed to survive homelessness in NYC, but how their sense of humour and ability to keep looking forward also kept them knit together.

Liked it? You can purchase the film here.

Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen.

2012-02-10T17:37:55+00:00

This has already been around the Internet, but it’s way too good not to post.

BC’s Big Gamble: Northern Gateway Pipeline

2012-02-08T19:48:17+00:00

What could be the harm in Enbridge pumping million gallons of bitumen across a rainforest, some mountains, and a few First Nations’ lands to the ocean where it will get shipped through messy seas all the way to China?

Oh.

What the Frack?

2012-02-07T01:28:24+00:00

In case you ever wondered what the fracking deal was with hydraulic fracking…I couldn’t help myself with the pun; it was unavoidable.

An interactive look at the dangers of fracking, aka injecting steam into rock or shale to release gas deep within the earth.

Most infographics try to explain a concept by taking loads of information and morphing them into maps and diagrams that really don’t really decode the information any better. This infographic makes those others look like a kindergarten sandbox.

Fracking sounds titillating and represents the possibility of energy independence, but wait till you hear the rest of the story (as researched by Josh Fox).

China’s Sinopec = Oilsands Puppet Master?

2012-02-05T20:33:40+00:00

Terry Glavin is a feisty journalist for the Ottawa Citizen and he’s got a bee lodged squarely in his ass about why Canada (specifically the Harper government) has failed to inform us about China’s increasingly domineering role in our energy industry—try ownership of virtually all major Big Oil companies in Canada and a $20 billion dollar stake in our oilsands. Since China’s leading investment company, Sinopec, is also leading the way in crimes against humanity (they kill their own oil workers when they demand fair wages) as well as supporting Syria and Iran’s disgraceful attacks against their own people by virtue of controlling the majority of their oil resources, it’s no wonder why Glavin is spitting mad.

That bee’s lodged in my ass, too. Glavin’s cut-to-the chase reporting style shed light on some issues that conveniently don’t show up anywhere else. That’s not reporting. That’s apathy.

And I’m sick of not being told what in the hell is going on in Canada. This closed door game of Risk is in need of a little exposure. I kind of wish Wikileaks would expose that Harper is in fact a robot made in China. Then we’d blow the lid of this disgusting charade called Canadian politics.

Suck it, Harper.

The Maldives Are Drowning: The Island President Trailer

2012-02-04T21:48:24+00:00

It’s gob smacking that in 2012 we’re still debating the topic of global warming. The Maldives has lost over 5 meters of beachfront due to rising ocean levels, and an estimated 25 meters of water is waiting to spill over the land pending the melting of our ice caps. Of course the Maldives are just one of many coastal cities like Manhattan and Vancouver that will be completely decimated by rising ocean tides. Atlantis isn’t just some fairy tale. It’s our future. We’ll be exploring underwater museums rather than art galleries and using bailing buckets to back peddle our way out of yet another apocalyptic variety show.

The Island President, featuring charismatic president Mohamed Nasheed, is an upcoming film about the rising coastal waters submerging the Maldives. It’s a disturbing look at our deny-first—point-fingers-later attitude and how it’s delaying any probable fixes that could reverse the catastrophic coastal flooding beating down our doors.

Can I just say? I don’t give a fuck if it’s elephants or green algae or idiotic human beings causing the increase in our global temperatures. I don’t care if it’s just a natural carbon dioxide cycle and we’re all pointing fingers at each other when it’s just the planet getting its period.

What I do give a fuck about is this: what are we going to do about it all? Because it’s happening right now while we sit on our asses and debate the topic. I just felt an eroded chunk of Vancouver fall into the ocean and I’m not okay with my 24th story condo being the next underwater viewing window at the Vancouver zoo.

Oh, in case you’re starting to panic about your impending drowning, check out TED Talk speaker David Deutsch. He offers a practical guide for what to do when shit hits the proverbial shore.

Thanks to @DavidAustin for sending me this little gem. I really can’t wait to see it (released to theatres March 28/12). I just hope I won’t have to hold my breath in a flooded theatre.

Pink Ribbons, Inc

2012-02-03T00:55:05+00:00

Cancer is shitty. We can all probably agree that the faster we can find a cure, the better.

It’s great that people are willing to put forth their hard-earned money to support the so-called fight against cancer, but where is that money going, and who is really benefiting? I haven’t seen this film yet, but you can bet it’s not going to be cancer patients who win.

Rachel and I have been very opposed to the idea of pinkwashing for a long time. The pink ribbon is a brand in itself… a brand used by other corporations to hawk shitty pink versions of their often cancer-causing products, shamelessly boost their public image, and make a healthy profit by exploiting breast cancer victims.

I was giddy when I first saw this trailer. I know far too many people that get duped into buying this crap on a regular basis. I hope you all check it out and think twice about pink ribbon support.

Related: This happens to be timed perfectly with the recent well-deserved outrage over the Susan G. Komen Foundation pulling support for the invaluable American organization, Planned Parenthood.

Via @storyofstuff

Changing Education Paradigms

2012-02-02T07:53:27+00:00

The fundamental structure of our education system is so out of touch with modern society, that sometimes I find it astonishing that we’re still able to progress as a civilization. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration… I’m not so sure we’re still progressing that much at all.

This talk, by Ken Robinson, makes so much sense that it kind of makes me sick. As someone working in a creative field, I’ve always felt a bit betrayed by the school system and its overly academic bias. I was a pretty good kid in school (for the most part), but I always got terrible grades. It wasn’t because I didn’t understand, or even that I didn’t try. It was because I had almost zero interest in what was being taught and rarely found any relevance to what I wanted to do in life.

That all changed the instant I hit college. It was the first time that I could see the relation to real life. I could see relevance. I got to work with peers of different ages with different experiences… and I did great. My learning accelerated to levels that I never thought possible. It was all because of the environment and a focus that aligned with my personality and skills. The courses themselves were mostly shit, but I still managed to get more out of them simply because of a slightly more tailored experience.

Imagine what we could accomplish if we took a step back and redesigned the system from the start.

Also check out Robinson’s TED Talk.

Via the glorious Tim Olsen.

The Story of Stuff Podcast

2012-02-02T07:03:41+00:00

Our favourite environmental vigilantes, The Story of Stuff, now have a podcast. We’ve posted a couple of their videos in the past, and are huge fans.

You’d be hard pressed to find another organization that manages to communicate complex social and environmental issues in a more concise, accessible, and easy-to-understand way.

Watch their videos, read the book, and subscribe to their podcast.

Turbine Free Wind Power

2012-01-24T21:21:47+00:00

I love ideas like this. I have no idea if it actually works, but it is an ingenious concept.

Imagine the progress we’d make if the oil industry began to innovate and find new ways to generate energy instead of putting all their… er, energy into PR campaigns.

Bah! Who am I kidding. Those dinosaurs wouldn’t change if a world altering idea smashed them in the face. God, I can’t wait until they go the way of the major record label.

Via @Angie_D_Rhyme

Wilson Miner - When We Build

2012-01-23T18:25:32+00:00

An incredibly inspiring talk by Wilson Miner from this year’s Build Conference in Belfast.

It may be targeted to web designers, but it applies to anyone who creates anything in our civilization. It’s an amazing talk. Watch it, then create something.

Via Vimeo

Update: Here’s Wilson’s When We Build reference page.

Race Against the Machine: An Interview with Andrew McAfee

2012-01-23T07:59:11+00:00

Steam power changed the transportation and manufacturing industries, but it didn’t affect those in accounting. Compare this to the implications of today’s boundless technology which aren’t limited to any particular industry at all.

A fascinating look at how technology has shaped our entire employment landscape; shifting us from a manufacturing based economy to an automated one and redefining jobs in the process. Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the Center for Digital Business at the MIT Sloan School of Management discusses the future role of technology and ways we may still be able to beat computers at their own games.

If you liked that, check this out: A recent NPR podcast highlights some similar examples on the question of whether manufacturing is dying in America, overtaken by our exponential development of technology.

People & Power: Collapse of the Celtic Tiger

2012-01-22T21:29:52+00:00

I don’t know a lot about Ireland, and I had no idea that they’ve had such a roller coaster of an economy over the last couple decades. From the mid-1990’s to the mid-2000’s, Ireland went from the “poor man of Europe” to having one of the highest incomes per capita in the entire world. Then, like any economic shit bubble, it crashed and burned, and now holds the greatest dept in Europe and the greatest deficit in the world.

This fascinating mini-documentary tells the sickening story of Ireland’s economic rise and fall.

Via Ad Busters